Orebro SK vs Kalmar FF Predictions, Betting Tips and Match Previews

This is the first of the midweek games in Sweden’s top flight. With the country in the World Cup, the season will break up this weekend before restarting in July so both these sides will be hungry to end the first half of the campaign on a positive note. While it’s still early days, both sides look like potential European candidates.

Orebro have certainly been one of the most improved teams since last season when they finished down in 11th. Axel Kjäll’s side made a flying start to the campaign, going undefeated over their opening seven games but back-to-back defeats since then have just halted their progress. In truth they were never likely to keep that kind of run going deep into the season but if they can get back on track quickly, they are still well-placed to position themselves for a European push.

Kalmar are another side that have looked much sharper this term. They only finished two points above the drop-zone last term but are currently riding high in 4th place. Therefore their tale is a pretty similar one to that of their opponents and they are also coming into this game following a poor result, which saw them lose 2-1 at minnows Brommapojkarna, having won four on the spin prior to that.

Overall home advantage could just swing this the way of Orebro and the value looks to lie there. Although they’ve won just 1 of their 4 home league games so far this term, it’s well worth noting who they’ve played. The 3 home games that they didn’t win were all against the current top three sides and they handled themselves pretty well in those games, with clear leaders Hammarby the only side to beat them at Behrn Arena so far this term. While it hasn’t been a massive fortress for them over the past twelve months, they did beat Kalmar in this fixture at the back end of last season.

Kalmar meanwhile have lost 67% of their competitive away games so far this term. The only away matches in which they’ve avoided defeat came in the league against bottom four sides. They’ve also lost 6 of their last 8 on the road in the Allsvenskan overall, including a poor run at the end of last season.

Orebro have also looked like they offer more in the final third than Kalmar with 1.56 goals per game on average, compared to the away team’s 1.22. It’s likely to be a competitive game but overall backing an Orebro Win could be the smart move.